St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-07-09

MARTHA's VINEYARD, Hass., July g.
Many hundreds OF Brooklyn Tabernacl
people and their friends have made
pilgrimage to this place. 1t is one poin
in an excursion of six days, taking i
Newport, Nantucket and this island
The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. d
preached here this morning in the grea
camp-meeting tabernacle. Thousands O
people were present from all parts o
New England. The music was con
Quoted by band.
DR.. Talmage's text was: Through
window in basket was let down b,
the wall."-II Cor. XII 49, He said:
Sermons on Paul in jail, Paul on Mar
Hill, Paul in the shipwreck, Paul befor.
the Sanhedrim, Paul before Felix ar,
plentiful, but in my text we have Paul ii
basket.
Damascus is a city Of white and glist
ening architecture sometimes called ''the
eye of the East" sometimes called "a
pearl surrounded by emeralds," at one
time distinguished for swords of the best
material called Damascus blades, and up.
holstery of the richest fabrics called
damasks. A horseman by the name OF
Saul, riding toward this city, had been
thrown from the saddle. The horse had
dropped under a flash from the sky,
which at the same time was so bright it
blinded the rider for many days, and,
think, SO permanently injured his eye
sight that this defect of vision became
the thorn in the flesh he afterward speaks
OF. He started for Damascus to butcher
Christians, but after that hard fall from
his horse he was changed man and
preached Christ in Damascus till the CITY
was shaken to its foundation.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is: "Kill himl
Kill him !" The city is surrounded by
high wall, and the gates are watched by
the police lest the Cicilian preacher es-
cape. Many Of the houses are built on
the wall, and their balconies projected
clear over and lowered above the gardens
outside. 1t was customary to lower.
baskets out of these balconies and pull
up fruits and flowers from the gardens.
TO this day visitors 1t the monastery of
Mount Sinai are lifted and let down in
baskets. Detectives prowled around
from house to house looking for Paul,
but his friends hid him, now in one place,
now in another. He is no coward, as
fifty incidents in his life demonstrate.
But he feels his work is not done vet,
and SO he evades assassination. SIS that
preacher here?" the foaming mob shout
ut one house door. "Is that fanatic
here 7" the police shout at another house
door. Sometimes on the street in
cognito he passes through crowd
of clenched fists and sometimes
he secretes himself on the house
top. At last the infuriate popu-
have positive evidence that he is in the
house of one of the Christians, the bal
cony of whose home reaches over the
wall. "Here he is Here he isw The
vociferation and blasphemy and bowling
of the pursuers are at the front door,
They break In. Fetch out that Cos
pelizer, and let US hang his head on the
city gate. Where is hep" The emer-
gency was terrible. Providentially there
was good stout basket in the house.
Paups friends fasten rope to the basket.
Paul steps into it. The basket is lifted
to the edge of the balcony on the wall,
and then while Paul holds on to the rope
with both hands his friends lower away,
carefully and cautiously, slowly but
surely, further down and further down,
until the basket strikes the earth and the
apostle steps out and afoot, and alone
starts on that famous missionary tour,
The story of which has astonished earth
and Heaven. Appropriate entry in Pauls
1iary of travels, Through a window in !
basket was I let down BY the wall" {
observe, first, on what slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
that cord fastened to that lower !
lng basket never knew how much would '
iepend upon the strength of it. How ,
! IL mad been broken, and the apostles ,
lie had been dashed out? What would
AVE become of the Christian Church /
All that magnificent missionary work in a
'amphilia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Mace b
lonia, would never have been accom- t
'llshed. ALI his writings that make up d
Q indispensable and enchanting a part f
i the New Testament would never t.
ave been written. The story of resur- n
ection would never have been so glori- b
usly told as he told it. That example r
!, heroic and triumphant endurance at O
'hilfppi, in the Mediterranean Eurocly- Il
on, under fagellation and at his BE- b
eadlng, would not have kindled the
outrage OF ten thousand martyrdoms. tt
ut that rope holding that basket, how ct
'uch depended ON It'll So, again and II
gain, great results have hung on what tc
semed slender circumstances. T
Did ever ship of many thousand tons g,
tossing the sea have such important T.
assenger as had once boat of leaves. q,
ON taffrail to stern only three or four Ut
ct, the vessel made waterproof by a T
vat OF bitumen and floating on the OF
lie with the infant lawgiver of the ps
'Ws on board? What if some crocodile ch
lould crunch it, What if some of the IT
title wading in for drink should sink a
:! Vessels of war sometimes carry so
Ity guns looking through the port lat
'les ready to open battle. But that as
~ craft on the Nile seems to be armed WI
It'll all the guns of thunder that bonn ha
rded Sinai at the lawgiying. On how hu
agile craft sailed how much of histo. he
,al Importance sw
The parsonage at Epworth. England. ev
on hre in the night, and the father do
shed through the hallway for the res thi
h